Why Were Heavens and Earth Created in Six Days?

Peace be with you, eminent Sheikh. Please explain the divine wisdom behind creating the heavens and the earth in six days. This question was asked repeatedly during a conversation with some Hindus working here in Saudi Arabia. They wondered, “Could your Lord not create the heavens and the earth just by saying, ‘Be’ and then it is? Why did he not do that?” High be Allah above whatever they associate with Him. We ask you kindly to give us a thorough answer by showing the wisdom behind that. May Allah reward you with good and let Muslims benefit from your knowledge.

First of all, Allah cannot be questioned as to what He does, while everyone else shall be questioned. They just do not know about the Lord. Questions are to be asked only to created beings, not to the Creator. With His Absolute Wisdom and Perfect Predetermination, whatever the Creator does or says definitely has some purpose.

Also, Allah wills to teach His creation through His own Actions. With that six-day origination, He means to give us a practical example of gradation and teach us that every existing being evolves. Just like a person grows up from babyhood to youth, maturity, and elderliness, it was Allah’s Decree that the whole universe comes into existence similarly, in stages.

Also, Allah willed that both time and space go hand in hand in the course of creation. Such six days, together with the seventh day, constitute the circle of time, which is governed and regulated by space. In turn, time had a basic role to play in the evolution of the world designed for us to live in. Therefore, temporal and spatial dimensions substantially integrate. Time is abstract, while space is material; so, Allah has made them interrelated. All such facts may be well beyond human perception, especially for those who are not insightful or believing in Divine Planning.

Ibn Al-Qayyim (may Allah confer mercy upon him) said,

Tell those with blind eyes that sunshine

Can be seen only by perceptive eyes

Such souls are endowed with superficiality

And lack the spirit to look into the essence

Ask those Hindus: Why were days created? Why does time exist? This is all known only by the Creator, and the human being is too weak and too inferior to question his Creator. Allah says,{He cannot be questioned as to what He does, while they shall be questioned} [Al-Anbiya’: 23]. Everything Allah does has some wisdom, and if man cannot see it, this is his own problem. That is what I have to say in this regard, and Allah knows best.